Mercedes-Benz World and the Jurassic Coast An afternoon at Mercedes-Banz World, playing in their 4x4s, followed by a super relaxing stay at the lovely Morton's House Hotel in Corfe Castle. A very nice extended weekend indeed.
Mercedes-Benz World Friday - The views of the off-road course at Mercedes-Benz World are rather limited if you're not actually in the car, but I did still manage to get a few photos of Judith out in their GLE 250d.With "only" 201bhp from its relatively tiny 2.1L 4-cylinder diesel engine, the slopes it was able to climb were impressive indeed, particularly considering that it was a) on standard road tyres, and b) it was very cold out so all of the north facing slopes were still covered with frost. And when I say "slope" I mean serious slope. The steepest slope there, which it did get up, is 60%! That's quite significantly steeper than a 1:1 (which is only 45%).
Mercedes-Benz World
The Stairs The Stairs are visible in the background. You get to drive up and down that. My instructor made me drive up that with one wheel on the smooth bit and one wheel on the stairs, which apparently makes it trickier.
Mercedes-Benz World And that was the end of our sessions at Mercedes-Benz World. Awesome afternoon out.
Morton's House Hotel Saturday - The weather was still lovely (in Fleet) so we decided to head for the Jurassic Coast as it's the closest very scenic bit of coast to where we live.We were lucky that not only were we able to get a room in the lovely Morton's House Hotel at such short notice, but we were also able to get a table for dinner in their excellent restaurant.Unfortunately, but the time we'd got to the hotel the lovely, clear sunny skies were filled with clouds.
Morton's House Hotel A miscellaneous view at the hotel.
Corfe Castle Looking down the main road through the town to the castle.
Corfe Castle We thought we might pop in to the castle as we'd not been in for a while, but even though it was only just 4pm, the castle had been closed for half-an-hour already! It's only open until 3:30pm during the winter months!
Rollington Hill So while Judith headed for the nearest pub, I headed up Rollington Hill for a look at the view.
Castle from the Hill There are some lovely views of Corfe Castle from Rollington Hill. I had been planning to come up here to take some photos of the sunset, which was due in about twenty minutes, but it looked very much like there wasn't going to be a scenic sunset on this day.
Castle
Town It's a bit confusing that the castle is called Corfe Castle and the town is also called Corfe Castle. So here's a photo of Corfe Castle, but it's not the castle.
Dinner I met Judith in the pub, before we went back to our hotel for an excellent dinner.
The Great Globe Sunday - The Sun was out again so after breakfast we decided to head for the Durlston Country Park near Swanage, which is on a lovely bit of coast.This is The Great Globe at Durlston.
The Great Globe Judith with The Great Globe.
Cliffs There are some impressive cliffs along this stretch of coast. The big hole is where they used to quarry rock from the cliffs.
Portrait Trying out the "depth effect" portrait mode on my iPhone 7. It uses one of its two cameras to take an in-focus photo of the person and the other one to take an out-of-focus photo of the background. Then they get merged to create this nice effect.
Portrait This is the same photo, but zoomed out. I couldn't decide which one I liked best, so I've included them both.
Cafe View We had a very nice light lunch in the pleasant cafe before heading for home. This was the view from the roof of the cafe (which is in a beautifully presented and very impressive castle-like building - very well worth popping in for a look if you're in the area).And so ended an extended and very pleasant weekend.